Comments from that officer caught on video indicate he may have erroneously thought O’Neal had fired from a stolen auto barreling in his direction. In fact, those shots were fired in the officer’s direction by other police shooting at the stolen vehicle in apparent violation of departmental policy.
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Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, right, is blocked by one of three protestors as he tries to deliver a written statement about the recent release of police shooting video to television reporters outside the police department headquarters Friday, Aug. 5, 2016, in Chicago.
That and other policy changes represent an effort to restore public confidence in the department after video released a year ago showed a black teenager named Laquan McDonald getting shot 16 times by a white officer.
Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said on Saturday that videos of the fatal police shooting of a black man in the city last month indicate that three officers may have violated the department’s policies.
The indicting videos, released by police oversight agency Independent Police Review Authority, depict a swarm of confusion among the three police officers who responded to the scene of an alleged carjacking. The videos show officers firing repeatedly at a stolen auto as it careens down the street away from them.
Officers seemed keenly aware that they were wearing body cameras and that those cameras were recording all of their comments.
“We don’t believe there was any intentional misconduct with body cameras”, Mr Guglielmi said.
The news conference came the same day that protesters planned a rally and march over the shooting.
Johnson said the ongoing investigation prevented him from discussing details about the O’Neal shooting.
Authorities have neither detailed the specific policy, nor identified the officers.
“They shot at us too, right?” one officer can be heard saying, referring to the occupants of the stolen Jaguar. That and other policy changes represent an effort to restore public confidence in the department after video released previous year showed a black teenager named Laquan McDonald getting shot 16 times by a white officer.
Johnson said the officers had training in how to use the cameras but it is not clear how extensive that was.
Oppenheimer alleged that the non-operating body camera was part of a police effort to cover up what he called a “cold-blooded murder”. The footage that is available, moreover, showed the Chicago police taking “street justice into their own hands”, he said.
They and the attorney representing the O’Neal family scoffed when a department spokesman said Friday that the officer’s camera may have been deactivated by the force of the air bag when the stolen vehicle crashed into a police cruiser.
“Superintendent Johnson has asked that I take a hard look at our training and tactics from this incident”, Kirkpatrick said.
Dozens of people are gathering on Chicago’s southwest side to protest police brutality and the latest killing of a black 18-year-old by the city’s police force.
The McDonald shooting video prompted accusations that Mayor Rahm Emanuel had delayed its release until after his re-election and some protesters called for him to resign.
Several also noted they were also upset that 50 years after King Jr. marched on the same streets, they are still having to march today.
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A memorial of the 1966 march was unveiled Friday at Marquette Park.
